Post by Alena on Dec 26, 2006 20:29:42 GMT -5
Kathy Long: ‘One Art Is Not Enough!’
by Robert W. Young
Sooner or later, it happens to every martial artist: You have devoted the past 10 years to honing your skill in isshin-ryu karate—or Shaolin kung fu or muay Thai kickboxing or whatever—and you think you are a pretty good fighter.
Then one day you spar with a practitioner of a different style, and he succeeds with so many defensive and offensive techniques that it takes you completely by surprise. You throw your best roundhouse kick, but he just absorbs it and slams you to the mat. You poke at his head gear with your tiger-claw strike, but he just slips to the side and locks your arm, then sends you sailing over his hip.
You never even see his counterattacks coming, but afterward you thank your lucky stars the encounter happened in the gym and not on the street.
For some martial artists, such an experience elicits nothing more than a hokey attempt at rationalization: “Our sparring rules don’t permit throwing. The mat was so soft that I couldn’t push off to throw my reverse punch. I didn’t know he was going to grab my legs and take me down, but I’ll be ready next time.”
But for more open-minded practitioners, such as former kickboxing champion Kathy Long, such experiences open their eyes to a whole new world of self-defense training—in a different but complementary martial art.
“I practice san soo kung fu with Chris McCune and Brazilian jujutsu with the Machado brothers,” she says. “I’ve done kung fu for more than 19 years, and before that I did aikido. I’ve also done wrestling, kali and a little wing chun.”
Long has invested time in so many styles because she believes that martial artists interested in self-defense should strive for maximum versatility. “It’s like when you get into kickboxing: If you have a really good jab and nothing else, you have a deficit,” she says. “If you’re going to be a well-rounded martial artist, you can’t study just one style. Every style has holes and deficiencies, and you have to be able to fill them.”
While training in boxing and kickboxing under former manager Eric Nolan, Long defeated some of the best female fighters in the world, including Ramona Gatto, Bonnie Cannino and Kyoko Kamikaze. But just having the jab, cross and a couple of kicks from kickboxing is not enough for self-defense, Long says. “It’s not even close. If a woman [who has trained in kickboxing] decides to punch a 200-pound man in the face, she’s probably not going to be that effective. However, if she takes that punch and turns it into a finger spear to the eyes, and the right cross becomes an open-hand strike to the throat, then a knee to the groin and a strike to the base of the skull, things change. You can’t do just one style and expect it to be as destructive as you’d like to be in self-defense.”
Kicking and punching are obviously important for self-defense, but so is ground work.
“You should learn it if you want to be a well-rounded martial artist—and that’s the key phrase right there. If you just like one style, then do it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to be well-rounded, you can’t take just one style. Take san soo, mix it with jujutsu, kickboxing and Philippine martial arts—either kali or escrima, with empty hands, sticks and knives—and you’ll be set.”
Such flexible skills are needed because you never know what kind of a situation may arise. “I’ve seen the way people who don’t know martial arts fight,” Long says. “There are times when they end up on the ground, and there are times when they stand there crazily throwing punches at each other without rhyme or reason.”
Only dedicated practice can make your brain and body function under that kind of an onslaught and use those hard-earned skills, Long says. “There are so many attributes needed to be a good fighter. One of them is being able to think calmly under pressure. It is very difficult. Believe it or not, boxing or kickboxing is a great way to develop that attribute. If you get in the ring and have somebody throwing punches at you, you have to be able to think offense and defense and slip and move. Punches and kicks are coming at you, and you must stay calm, check something and strike back.”
A frequently mentioned fear of cross-training martial artists involves becoming what is commonly referred to as a “jack of all trades but master of none”—in other words, a person who has a superficial knowledge of several styles but advanced skill in none.
“Why is it bad to have a good basic grasp of three or four martial arts and not be a master of any of them?” Long asks. “People who work don’t have time to dedicate five or six years to every style they want to get into.”
Cross-training is the best way to overcome that obstacle and prepare yourself for any eventuality, she adds.
by Robert W. Young
Sooner or later, it happens to every martial artist: You have devoted the past 10 years to honing your skill in isshin-ryu karate—or Shaolin kung fu or muay Thai kickboxing or whatever—and you think you are a pretty good fighter.
Then one day you spar with a practitioner of a different style, and he succeeds with so many defensive and offensive techniques that it takes you completely by surprise. You throw your best roundhouse kick, but he just absorbs it and slams you to the mat. You poke at his head gear with your tiger-claw strike, but he just slips to the side and locks your arm, then sends you sailing over his hip.
You never even see his counterattacks coming, but afterward you thank your lucky stars the encounter happened in the gym and not on the street.
For some martial artists, such an experience elicits nothing more than a hokey attempt at rationalization: “Our sparring rules don’t permit throwing. The mat was so soft that I couldn’t push off to throw my reverse punch. I didn’t know he was going to grab my legs and take me down, but I’ll be ready next time.”
But for more open-minded practitioners, such as former kickboxing champion Kathy Long, such experiences open their eyes to a whole new world of self-defense training—in a different but complementary martial art.
“I practice san soo kung fu with Chris McCune and Brazilian jujutsu with the Machado brothers,” she says. “I’ve done kung fu for more than 19 years, and before that I did aikido. I’ve also done wrestling, kali and a little wing chun.”
Long has invested time in so many styles because she believes that martial artists interested in self-defense should strive for maximum versatility. “It’s like when you get into kickboxing: If you have a really good jab and nothing else, you have a deficit,” she says. “If you’re going to be a well-rounded martial artist, you can’t study just one style. Every style has holes and deficiencies, and you have to be able to fill them.”
While training in boxing and kickboxing under former manager Eric Nolan, Long defeated some of the best female fighters in the world, including Ramona Gatto, Bonnie Cannino and Kyoko Kamikaze. But just having the jab, cross and a couple of kicks from kickboxing is not enough for self-defense, Long says. “It’s not even close. If a woman [who has trained in kickboxing] decides to punch a 200-pound man in the face, she’s probably not going to be that effective. However, if she takes that punch and turns it into a finger spear to the eyes, and the right cross becomes an open-hand strike to the throat, then a knee to the groin and a strike to the base of the skull, things change. You can’t do just one style and expect it to be as destructive as you’d like to be in self-defense.”
Kicking and punching are obviously important for self-defense, but so is ground work.
“You should learn it if you want to be a well-rounded martial artist—and that’s the key phrase right there. If you just like one style, then do it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to be well-rounded, you can’t take just one style. Take san soo, mix it with jujutsu, kickboxing and Philippine martial arts—either kali or escrima, with empty hands, sticks and knives—and you’ll be set.”
Such flexible skills are needed because you never know what kind of a situation may arise. “I’ve seen the way people who don’t know martial arts fight,” Long says. “There are times when they end up on the ground, and there are times when they stand there crazily throwing punches at each other without rhyme or reason.”
Only dedicated practice can make your brain and body function under that kind of an onslaught and use those hard-earned skills, Long says. “There are so many attributes needed to be a good fighter. One of them is being able to think calmly under pressure. It is very difficult. Believe it or not, boxing or kickboxing is a great way to develop that attribute. If you get in the ring and have somebody throwing punches at you, you have to be able to think offense and defense and slip and move. Punches and kicks are coming at you, and you must stay calm, check something and strike back.”
A frequently mentioned fear of cross-training martial artists involves becoming what is commonly referred to as a “jack of all trades but master of none”—in other words, a person who has a superficial knowledge of several styles but advanced skill in none.
“Why is it bad to have a good basic grasp of three or four martial arts and not be a master of any of them?” Long asks. “People who work don’t have time to dedicate five or six years to every style they want to get into.”
Cross-training is the best way to overcome that obstacle and prepare yourself for any eventuality, she adds.